The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, (NCDMB) said it has developed the Annual Nigerian Content Index, which would index the growth of service companies against their turnover of three preceding years to be carried as 25 per cent component into bids.
This was stated by the executive secretary of the board, Engr. Ernest Nwapa, while charging service companies to grow their capacities on the jobs they perform, insisting that companies which would benefit from the opportunities opened up by the Content Act would be the ones that were most prepared.
Nwapa gave this charge recently when he led a delegation of NCDMB personnel and international oil companies to inspect facilities of some indigenous oil servicing firms in Warri, as well as the Nigerian Navy Engineering College Sapele, the Nigerian Ports Authority, Warri, all in Delta State, and the Nigerian Institute of Welding in Obayanton, Edo State.
“We have to work together to grow companies to compete internationally. Government expects that as we get opportunities and get Nigerian companies to get jobs, they will spend the money in the economy, build capacity and create employment and improve the welfare of staff.
“To ensure this, the board has developed the Annual Nigerian Content Index, which will index the growth of service companies against their turnover of three preceding years and be carried as 25 per cent component into bids,” he said.
Capacity building by facility owners and acquisition of hi-tech industry equipment by Nigerians, he explained, would create employment opportunities and guarantee the successful implementation of the Nigerian Content Act.
“Nigerians and indigenes of oil producing community who invest their resources to acquire the assets are bound to insist that major oil producers who control over 90 per cent of the industry production and spending patronise their facilities and equipment as provided by the Act,” he stated.
He explained that the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had directed the board to devise a strategy that would ensure that facilities set up in the country were guaranteed patronage by the industry.
Nwapa further explained that representatives of the oil companies were part of the visits to facilities so they could see for themselves the capacity of indigenous service providers, even as he noted that many procurement managers of IOCs were unaware of existing capacities in the country, hence their preference to import inputs for their company’s operations.
“The IOCs must know the facilities in Nigeria, the Nigerian content Act will not work without our collective effort. Government needs to see that Nigerians benefit from the industry and the host communities need to see changes in their lives,” Nwapa stated.
He stressed that the federal government was devising various schemes to create employment opportunities for Nigerians, adding that the local content activities have already generated over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in the past one year. He also expressed hope that it would surpass 300,000 within the next four years. ?